Think of everything you know about Sherlock Holmes -
deerstalker hat, calabash pipe, big coats.
There's his genius powers of deduction and his iconic catchphrase…
Elementary, my dear Watson.
You can't have a Holmes story without these things.
Right?
He's become such a pop culture legend
that his costume is shorthand for any detective.
Pika Pika.
But the thing is,
a lot of the stuff that you've learned makes Sherlock "Sherlock Holmes"
actually wasn't part of Arthur Conan Doyle's original creation
130 years ago.
Doyle's first stories never had Sherlock utter the phrase "elementary".
And Sherlock wasn't a savant - he was sometimes wrong.
Doyle also never mentions a deerstalker hat,
but illustrator Sidney Paget added one in 1891 as a creative flourish,
and the rest is history.
Sherlock Holmes began in magazine stories as a fictional portrait
of Arthur Conan Doyle's medical school professor, Dr Joseph Bell,
who could deduce a patient's occupation and personality
by simply studying their appearance.
As Sherlock's popularity grew, theatre came knocking.
It was here, not in the original stories, that Sherlock's famous pipe was born.
Actor William Gillette
changed Doyle's vision of a straight, rather ordinary pipe
into a curved calabash,
since it let audiences better see his face on stage.
Then, filmmakers flocked to inject their new ideas.
Early films made Sherlock super intelligent.
PG Wodehouse wrote the line "Elementary, my dear fellow",
and later adaptations swapped "fellow" with "Watson".
Moriarty became Sherlock's arch nemesis,
even though he only appeared in a handful of Doyle's original stories.
This openness to adaptation is one of the things
that helped Sherlock's global appeal.
The pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place.
By the mid-20th century,
there had been over 62 Holmes films,
and he was even used in a number of anti-Nazi propaganda movies.
In fact, President Roosevelt was such a Sherlock fan,
he joined an exclusive society called The Baker Street Irregulars.
No, not those Irregulars,
but a group of powerful Sherlock fans.
What's so interesting, though,
is that even as the Allies were weaponizing Sherlock to fight Nazis,
word has it that Hitler was a huge fan
of the multiple German Sherlock Holmes films being adapted at the time.
Clearly, despite being incredibly British,
Sherlock was adapting to cultures around the world.
Holmes had become more of a myth than a rigid character
who could be remoulded to fit any country's settings or politics.
His universal appeal probably has something to do
with his qualities that most societies really admire.
He's conscientious, gifted, and does good in the world,
but at the same time, he's plagued by personal demons
and often doesn't know how to relate to people on a personal level.
This makes him more relatable than, say, a superhero.
And actually, one of the world's most famous comic book heroes
copied this formula.
Sir, it's morning.
You can't spend the rest of your life alone, dressed in black,
listening to angry music and staying up all night.
Yes, I can, because I'm Batman.
The bat doesn't just beat up bad guys.
His deductive reasoning powers plots.
The Joker is his Moriarty, and Robin, his Watson.
But he's also tormented, aloof and reclusive.
In fact, the virtual reality game Batman Arkham VR
made detective work Batman's primary focus.
And there's more than a hint of Victorian London here.
Other famous characters that took a leaf out of Sherlock's book
include the genius Arsène Lupin
whose creator even had Lupin come face to face with a character
called Herlock Sholmes.
More recently, there's Dr Gregory House,
who, like Holmes, has a desire to solve the unsolvable,
is cantankerous, and uses deductive techniques.
Then, there's John Luther,
who creator Neil Cross has said is a mix of Sherlock Holmes and Columbo.
The detective's influence is everywhere in pop culture.
You'll even hear his words coming from Spock.
If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable,
must be the truth.
How poetic.
The true power of a character
lies in the relationship that they build with the viewer,
how they hold up a mirror to both filmmakers and audiences,
and in recent years, Sherlock adaptations have reflected big changes in society.
Enola Holmes gave a teenage girl centre-stage,
while The Irregulars has the majority of detective work done
by an inclusive cast of young sleuths
who manage to succeed despite not having the power of an older, wealthy white man.
I didn't need you to be brilliant. I…
I just needed you to fight with me.
Every modern adaptation now cherry-picks elements of the Sherlock myth,
leaving out certain ideas and adding ones that say something new.
This is the secret to Sherlock's success -
he evolves with the times to reflect society,
even as he flips over its underbelly.
For more deep dives into the characters and ideas
behind your favourite Netflix shows, stick around on this Netflix channel.